House of Living Nightmares
by FilamentJack
Summary: A normal trip to Chiyo's turns into a nightmare for Osaka, and a threat to the lives of all the girls.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** All Azumanga Daioh and related character's are property of Kiyoho Azuma and Mediaworks. This is my first fanfic EVER. I didn't even know that you had to post disclaimers. So please criticize constructively.

Also, since I watched the English subbed version of the show, the language they are speaking is, approximately, translated Japanese.

---------------

The stormclouds rumbled up above. They had only cut the Special Search Force off an hour ago the before the local coast guard had started on their trail. Reiji clung to the windshield desperately to keep himself from falling into the sea. He felt as if he were the Greek legend Prometheus stealing Fire for mankind, under the pursuit rained down by the gods, although the only other passengers in the boat were his colleague Yoshio Matsumoto, and the Yume-Shutsuen, and the bitter-salt water spraying on them was purely the boat splashing through the waves - it wasn't raining at all.

The Yume-Shutsuen they were so lucky that the neural holographic display engine took such a simple design. It could hold all the power one could imagine and yet had only the size of a small freezer. That awe was quickly broken. "We can't hold the fuzz off much longer. We need to get into port!" Yoshio yelled at him over the rumbling of the motor and wind. "I told you! That's 15 kilometers away. We'll have to stop sooner than that!" He frantically searched, holding the beige and sepia colored machine to his stomach. "You know how to beach this rig?" Reiji asked, pointing to what looked like a safe beach ahead, surrounded by dark, rocky cliffs. Reiji thought he could see the roof of a house in the low light.

"Bust in to the shore..." "STOP! THIS IS THE-" "Now!!!" "-COAST GUARD! I REPEAT! STOP YOUR..."

Yoshio tried to cut the motor and tried to run the boat sideways across the sand-shelf. They heard a long scraping noise, followed by the boat tipping over.

Reiji smashed his head and right arm on the Yoshio's askewed chest. As the boat returned to its upright position, sea-water splashed all over the tumbling Yoshio and Reiji and the plastic bag covering the Yume-Shutsuen. _Damn it!_ Their dream device could not get wet.

They jumped out and rushed through the knee high water, despite the cold, the cops, and the fact that they could barely see from the salt in their eyes.

Once they reached that house by the beach they immediately broke in through the lowest window. The lights of the coast guard's ship shined bright into the house. There now remained only one option - hide the Yume-Shutsuen in the house, so that no one would be able to trace it to them.

The Yume-Shutsuen, the thing that could make anyone's dream into reality. They rushed upstairs, hearing the sound of sirens in the distance. "Surround the house, surround the house!" _Somewhere, God, Not now, they could not let anyone, no this thing was too dangerous to let anyone else get._

_------------_  
The sunlight reflected on the side of the school.  
Kagura's sudden feeling of warmth due to the thickness of the humidity outside was drawn away by the presence of her friends waving to her from the distance. The sound of cicadas in the trees and of students talking filled the courtyard. Kagura walked past Sakaki, her tall, quiet rival, and stood between Ayumu, or "Osaka" as everyone called her, and Tomo, the one who had been calling for her loudest while she walked over.  
"Kagura! Ready for summer break?"  
"Yeah, I have been setting up my new schedule"  
"A schedule? How meticulous!" Tomo-chan replied, swinging her blue school uniform about.

"How about Chiyo-chan, Osaka-san, Yomi and you all"

"Yeah," Chiyo and Yomi replied. "I've already forgotten to set my alarm clock," added Osaka.  
"Ooh…What are you guys going to do?"  
"We're discussing another summer vacation-trip to Chiyo-chan's summer house" Tomo explained.  
"Oh, a summer trip, huh?"  
"We were going to invite you too" Chiyo chirped in.  
"Wow, that sounds fun. Is Sakaki coming too."

"We haven't asked her yet but I'm sure she'll agree to it."  
_Wow, I really am one of them_, Kagura thought, wondering where she had thought of Chiyo-chan's summer house recently. Chiyo's summer house...  
"That's where the break in happened!" suddenly burst out of her mouth.  
"It's okay, we've updated security; the place is safe now" Chiyo-chan reassured them.  
"But aren't you worried that our vacation place is a burglar's target?" Tomo-chan asked.  
"Tomo," Yomi scolded her.  
"I-i'm sure they were just trying to find something valuable, summer houses are usually th-thought of as expensive" Chiyo said, not without revealing some anxiety in her waving hand motions.  
"But they we're recently fired scientists." Tomo added.

"Maybe they were testing for radiation" a voice popped in from direction nearest the wall.  
_Hm?_  
"In hot places UV rays create lots of radiation," Osaka explained. Everyone's face suddenly turned blue with disbelief; Osaka always somehow managed to bring everything back into reality.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:The Japanese word for seagull; umineko, literally means "sea-cat," referring to their meow-like call.**

**The heikegani (**_**Heikea japonica) **_**are a type of crab local to Japan.**

-----

The street-reflectors rumbled down below. They had only cut off a slow motorcyclist when a large truck got in their path. Yukari Tanizaki sped as fast as she could to make sure that she would make it to the beach house before Minamo Kurosawa, that overrated bubble-head slow-poke, did.

Kurosawa-sensei, known by her coworker Yukari Tanizaki as "Nyamo", wasn't aware that right now she was also being called a bubble-headed slow-poke. She parked her car next to the gate while she waited for Chiyo to step out and explain the locking mechanism. Chiyo-chan explained neatly "This is a new gate my dad installed as part of the security measure. All we have to do is - EEEEEEK!" A gray car suddenly shot down the path and smashed into the gate. Out of it came a visibly shaken Kagura and Sakaki, as well as a disappointed Tomo-chan.

"What is this?!" Yukari-sensei screamed suddenly, kicking open the door.

"It's the security gate." Chiyo-chan replied.

Tomo-chan stopped rubbing her head to ask,　"How did that bubble-headed slow-poke get here so fast?"

"Bubble head? We lost you when you tried to rout that old monk."

"But we…." Yukari-sensei practically pleaded.

"She warned us about the two gates and the burgular alarm," argued Yomi.

Yukari sensei floated nearly head-height by in rage.

Before the gate was opened Yukari-sensei and Tomo-chan had lashed out in a fit of complete rage.

--------------

Kagura stared at the house in amazement. She had never imagined that her friends had been hiding so much away from her. Chiyo-chan was actually exceedingly rich, despite how modest she might act; who would have guessed she had such a sunny, calm, resort? Not having sat down on a plopped down on a hard sunny floor while being able to smell polished wood and the sea in a while, Kagura did just that. Yomi, sat by her and unzipped her backpack. This house was wonderful, and as long as she sat still, no one else felt any urge but to relax here for a while (with the execption of Tomo, for, she knew, it wouldn't be long before she rushed out in her blue bikini). Ahh, this was enjoyable.

-----

That afternoon, while sitting at the beach, Sakaki saw a seagull land next to her. It looked curiously at her holding her small towel. _Sea cat. _She moved the tiniest bit closer to see how it would react to her hand. Then, Osaka popped over, looking – innocent, Sakaki sadly noted - in her pink one-piece, saying, "Aaah. Are you trying to pet the seagull?"

"Ummm..errr.." _Why must this always happen to me?_

Osaka sat down next to her.

"Hey, Sakaki, You know a lot about animals, don't you"

"Yeah."

"If a shark stopped moving it would die right?"

"…yeah" She tried to say through the yelling of Tomo chasing Chiyo through the sand behind her.

"And since it lives in the ocean that isn't a problem, but if sharks could walk it would always have to find someplace to go to."

"I guess."

"And why do sharks swim near the surface, if dolphins and turtles are the only things that swim up there?"

Waves churned nearby.

"I don't really like sharks."

"Oh really. Well, you know that tuna travel in large schools for camouflage, but wouldn't they would be harder to see if they just traveled alone?"

"But I guess that wouldn't be very easy since there are so many. Oh look, a _heikegani _crab!" Osaka abruptly ran off carrying Sakaki's towel.

Sakaki chased after Osaka, in her regular murmur trying to explain that that was her towel, when Chiyo-chan and Tomo-chan ran into her from behind.

"Waaaa!!!" They all got knocked into the sandy, foamy sea.

Smelt like fun, this ocean...

-------

Kurosawa "Nyamo" sensei relaxed under the parasol, as Yukari-sensei soaked up sun rays next to her.

Nyamo thought as she watched the carefree kids splashing in the water.

"Do you ever wonder why we don't offer some more parenting to these kids?"

"We're too young."

"Most people our age are just starting families"  
"Nah, That's too many responsibilities; feeding the baby, putting it to sleep, changing dirty diapers"

"But as they grow up you would have someone to love you when you came home everyday"

"What the point of getting them up everyday their elementary school years and their middle school years?"

"And after that they get to high school, like our students already are."

"Then they grow up and move away"

"Uh-huh. And that's why I don't have kids"

On that moment, Kurosawa sensei felt a little less attuned that parental urge to mother her students.


	3. Chapter 3

**Up to this point:** That evening was spent in celebration, and peace, eating a light soba dinner in the waning summer heat. The active beach fun, as one gets forced to the inert indoors, turns into just a plain awe at the presence of your new home. And when the sun goes down on Chiyo's everything seems to get a mist coming off of it, from the steam of the cooking noodles, to the moisture that evaporates off of your skin, to the cool that seemed to radiate of the floor and walls, and the most troubling being Sakaki getting sprayed in the eye with Yukari-sensei's new hairspray. None of the girls had anything to do, as they drifted from topic to topic in search of something of value.

-----------

Tomo-chan had been with this opportunity the year before and she knew better than to ask her teachers about their sex lives.

Everyone except the two adults, who reclined on the couch, sat at the kitchen table, under the yellow ceiling light. "Maybe its time to look back on previous summers," Yomi suggested. "Hic!" Tomo-chan replied, smiling her big smile, butted in. "What do you mean by 'hic'?"

"Awww, c'mon, summer nights are for Scary Stories! Yay!"

"Ahh, scary stories." Osaka agreed.

Her impulsive side couldn't wait any of the excitement, despite the fact that none of the people, she thought, could supply anything worth a listen. _We have gotta get something!_ The fun was about to begin.

Chiyo-chan started, "I have heard in other beach houses like this during the summer there was a massive outbreak of cockroaches. There were cockroaches everywhere"

Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted Sakaki slowly sneaking off.

"There were so many cockroaches, if and the whole kitchen and they gang up on you. While your whole body gets covered in crawling-" "AAAAaaak!" The tickle of the table on her arm made Tomo-chan jump.

It was only the place mat. "I thought I felt one touch me," Tomo-chan cried.

The chills on everyone's bodies shut Chiyo up. Yomi began her story. "Once there was a busy man who left to work every day from 8 in the morning to late at night. He worked in a damp office and the wetness caused him to have a rash on his back, right on the spot where he couldn't reach it. Being a businessman and having a long crowded train ride back, he could never scratch it. Oh, he CRAVED the ability to scratch, no doubt!" Sakaki rushed upstairs. "There was a waitress who lived in the apartment across the street who always kept her nails long and beautiful. And every night he went home too tired to do anything but sleep, with an extremely itchy back, and would see leaning her out of her window airing out her long, precious finger-nails. So one night while she was he snuck into her apartment and cut off her arms. When the police found they found her body laying in the tub with both of her arms missing. The man accordingly had sat just on sat the floor grinning, using her skinny arms as back-scratchers, saying, 'That's relieving.'"

Disturbing tale. Tomo-chan thought. _Its disturbing, of course it was disturbing to hear Yomi say anything about beauty products. And skinniness, yeah that's it_.

Next, it was Osaka's turn.

"Once, late in the evening I was riding the bus, split from her eye to down past her cheek. There came in another person with his leg broken almost at a 90 degree angle. Then came a man and this man had both his hands cut off in his lap," Osaka told "why were they on the same bus? While I was thinking a fourth person came in unlike the others, he had on a white jacket and was carrying a suitcase. When I looked at my hands I realized this was not my bus, it was the bus to the morgue."

"That was predictable," said Tomo dismissively.

"Nobody's predictable, except you," Kagura rebutted.

"I could do better." _Bitch, your skin is as dark as the sky outside_. Outside…

"Three men were out hiking in the mountains," is how Kagura began her story. "They had passed the sign noting where the trail merged with another trail, it was about as dark as it is in here. The walk was dead silent. Then they heard a sound behind them like the crying of a lady. At first they ignored it and hoped the woman was okay. Then they heard the sound again and realized it was coming from in front of them. They ran back reached the fork in the road leading back to the trailhead and the sign was missing. Not knowing which way to go, they became VERY stressed. Two of them went on the left trail and saw the dark cloud waiting in front of them. The first hiker flipped his route around as soon as he saw the shape coming toward him and the ribbons wrapped him tight around the neck. When he saw his partner being strangled he tried to run away, but was so afraid that he tripped and was caught by the robe and was squeezed in half for his indecision. As for the third guy… no one really knows. All they reported was that there a screaming man sighted running down the mountain path."

Everyone stared at her.

"Kagura, th-that's…"

"Well, that no fun at all"

"Enough of that, we've all had our turn to share." Tomo added, loosening her grip on her t-shirt.

"You've felt nothing."

"Yukari-sensei, what do you mean by that?"

"Well." Darkness seeped over the corners of Tomo's periphery. "Once there was a beach house, and two men broke in. Seven high school girls had come there on break thinking that the house was safe, but however, none of THEM KNEW THE TRUE NATURE OF WHAT THE MEN HAD BROUGHT WITH THEM!"

_Dang! if.._

"BUT AS THEY LEFT.."

_Holy crap! She better be making this up! I.._

Tomo-chan whipped her head back and forth looking for solace in their faces. There wasn't any to see.

"THEY REALLY HAD SET THE PLACE AS A TARGET WITH A TRACER! AND WHILE THE GIRLS WERE-"

"STTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPP!" Kurosawa-sensei finally interrupted.

"There is no plot to kill anyone! All they had with them was a box to carry things in! I know you are looking for a scare, but this is too much."

Yomi winced, Chiyo panted in pure fear.

Tomo found herself only able to exhale slowly.

Yukari-sensei looked at them all with what looked like disapproval, seeing that she had just ended storytime.

For several minutes they simply tried to keep the group together. "Its late, we better get to bed soon." "Yeah, we should get some rest for tomorrow."

"Aaaww, come on, its summer vacation!" Furious at being ignored Tomo-chan marched off to the kitchen.

-------

Sakaki, who had been hiding in her room with her ears covered. She felt really angered, that no one had asked before making her listen. She turned on her rolled-up futon to Chiyo-chan peeking in. "You didn't hear any of the stores, did you?" Chiyo asked. "No." "Than, can I sleep in here tonight?" Chiyo-chan asked her. Because sweet Chiyo-chan had looked so scared, she obliged. "It's only a threat if you believe it is." Sakaki responded.

-------

On the way to bed, Osaka looked into the dark closet. It frightened her so she walk away. She thought she felt someone behind her, so she quickly looked back then looked away again. As she turned her eyes away from it a third time she noticed a cream and sepia colored-box. Not wanting to look at any more dark, she quickly snatched it out and looked at it. What is this? It looked like a massage-device. She plugged it in to the wall and rested her head in the head-shaped dip in the center. A bar crossed over her forehead. It seemed Chiyo-chan kept her sleeping aids in here. It didn't seem to do anything, but it made her feel safer, so she flipped the switch and simply let herself dose uneasily off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: There are three staircases in Mihama summer house, one that goes from the living room to Osaka's room (canon),one (non-canon) that leads between all three floors and one (non-canon) small set of steps that leads from the entrance to the lowest floor. Also, I remind you that the kitchen is not a separate room from the living room.**

**----------------**

As Osaka drifted into sleep, she wondered what was set to happen before the night was over.

----------

Minamo Kurosawa lay in her bed on the top floor and commenced the odd habit she had of looking at her moonlit hand before she went to sleep. Throughout the day she had given limited care to her students: driving her students down here, deciding that they were allowed to go to the beach, sitting back while they talked. I guess that's all they need. They're high schoolers, after all, so there's no need to be a camp leader all of the time. Perhaps she was trying too hard. Why was she caring so much? Was she subconsciously seeing some kind of threat to protect them from?

A brushing on her pillow made her head jerk left. Huh?! There was nothing there, no threat. _Damn colleagues, _she muttered._ I mean, how do I end up working with the likes Yukari-san and Kimura-san?_ _What was the matter with Yukari telling us stories like that? Hard-work, endurance and fair-play are what they need, the worst thing we could do is take that away._ She sighed._ Wasn't that the P.E. teacher's job, making them able to fend for themselves?_ As she thought more and more she compared her self to her held-up hand: being high up it had the watching power, but it offered such little protection because it was so far down.

----------

Chiyo, who had been lying wide awake in dread, looked cautiously at where the ceiling met the wall. She reached her arm back to try and feel Sakaki's presence without moving her eyes from that spot. All she got were her hair ties. Other than the faint "schwaa" of the ocean, nothing gave any sound to show whether it was safe or unsafe. It was a hot night, yet she had to lay completely still, and keep a close eye on the blue light of the window on the wall, to keep from shivering. Then "pop," the light suddenly turned on.

The light in the crack of the door told her the hallway lights were on too. Unlike its usual yellow color, the light only gave a faint whitish glow giving everything the disturbing atmosphere of a dark elevator or a nighttime train station or a… A sound came from where the living room should be.

------

Yukari-sensei was quite annoyed that someone had turned on the light. She grumpily walked over to the switch to flip it off. The light was unresponsive. Frowning what she thought of as her most threatening frown, she looked out of her room. There was something, she couldn't quite figure out what, different about the shining light in there.

"Tick-tick-tick" went a sound from the kitchen. "What… is this?" she groaned as she walked over towards that sound. Yukari could see the kitchen light was on but at the spot where she was she couldn't see the area itself.

When she was halfway between her bedroom and the stairs, she saw a figure moving- no, crawling- from inside the kitchen, causing her to jump back to the side of the staircase. _What is this?! _

"Tick-tick-tick" like a wound down clock.

The shadowy figure crawled past the counter, moving, as she feared, toward the staircase. She slowly backed step by step, towards her room.

She blinked hard to see better what was crawling to the stairs. What she did see walking past her made her eyes grow large, then freeze completely, along with the rest of her body. Unable to tear her enlargened eyes or any of her body from the sight, she stood stuck, only a few feet from the railing. As soon it walked halfway up the stairs, she plopped on to the floor and ran as fast as her stiff muscles could take her out of that compromising position and into her room. Yukari-san closed her eyes and clutching her pounding heart, contemplating what the hell had just happened.

_I shouldn't drink so much, _she decided on the spot.

------

Tomo-chan, seeing all the lights go on, had felt the sudden urge to look in the hall. Something was odd. For one thing, she realized as she moved toward the light switch, the lightswitch's backlights were on, despite the fact that the lights were on too. Secondly, Tomo-chan also thought the light seemed creepier than the pitch dark did. Thirdly as far as she could tell, the lights had turned on themselves. And she could swear she heard shifting of several feet coming up the stairs, and it wasn't the scrape of the flowers, bobbing against the wall, on the hall table next to her. Kicking the dust around the table's skinny legs with her slippered feet, she could something more than settling dust under there. She leaned on the wall and looked under the desk.

Suddenly, her whole body went stiff as she could her something of a crunch of what was clearly two sets of feet behind her. _I can't move!_ Desperately trying to clench her teeth in an attempt to display defiance to her paralysis, she stood on the spot. _No!_ Deciding that whoever was behind her best not see her, she surrendered momentarily. That whoever left, and Tomo, almost preferring the safety of paralysis, jumped out. Not daring to look back, she quickly tip-toe-dashed into Kagura's room. _"Looking back ain't the best idea"_, something she had heard earlier that night made her think.

--------

Chiyo-chan waited in fear and confusion. As the night went by, in the ajar door, as the shuffling sound got louder, the fuzz of the edge of a shadow started to appear. She saw the shape get closer and closer to their room. Its shadow remained low to the ground. Fighting her fear, she forced the thought instinctively into her head that it was just her dog walking around. Then the realization that this was a definitely not Tadakichi-san seeped through her body. She furrowed over to Sakaki's futon. "Sakaki! Sakaki! Wake up! Sakaki!" The shadow stopped moving past them and reversed back. "sakaki---!" she whispered as loud as she could. The figure's head- a shark's- peeped through the door. The confused Sakaki made out where she was pointing at, and a quivering expression of fear that could make even Sakaki mouth a scream covered her face. The shark bust its head in, and Sakaki responded by slinging the bedside dresser drawer at the beast, which momentarily knocked it head back out.

What happened as Sakaki tried to move the dresser to shut the door terrified the young genius. Despite all Chiyo knew about marine biology, a claw- a gray, scaly claw- lashed out at Sakaki's ankle and seemed to paralyze her whole body as if she was having a seizure.

Screaming in the corner, Chiyo panicked; her friend Sakaki was frozen in place while being attacked by a giant land shark. Luckily, the dresser, lacking Sakaki's grip, fell on its foot, causing the shark-thing to jump backwards, roaring in pain, and giving the two of them enough time to slam the door on it.


	5. Chapter 5

フォームの始まり

**Note: **This is the first section dedicated to Yomi. I've made it long to make up for how much she's been ignored. Please point out any OOC moments to me, it's the last thing I want.

Yomi sat upright; she had heard two voices screaming. The desk lamp blared into her face. Still reeling from looking into the light without her glasses, she rolled over to the side of the bed. _Who was screaming? Chiyo and ???_ _Why are…_ All of the lights were on. She heard Chiyo-chan screaming again. She turned up her eyebrows. After clutching her beating heart again she shook any foolish thoughts out of her head. Deep breath. She had always been the serious friend was not about to give any of that up. That runt better not be freaking out over something stupid. Yomi, with much determination, simultaneously pushed the blanket off and slide her self upright, creating, in that struggle, a satisfying sense of urgency. The struggle instead pushed the blanket back over her head, covering everything but her pinkish off-white pajamas. The screaming and panicking got louder. Yomi pushed herself up in rage. She finally regained her footing on the floor, sticking like nectar to the wooden floorboard.

Yomi rushed out barefoot, without her glasses. "Ugh," she groaned, "Chiyo!" Looking around, Yomi could hardly see a thing, even after brushing the thin brown hair out of her eyes. _Damn it_. A growl came from down the hall. She looked around the senselessly blurry, but brightly lit hallway around her and could see nothing. _This is pointless_, she decided, and she dashed back into her room to get her glasses. A growl came from next door. _What the-_ After grabbing her glasses and running back out, Yomi tripped on her self, trying to run and put on her glasses at the same time. She thudded to the floor as she collapsed on her knees. She could hear the growling and, while catching her glasses, gave it a faint grimace of apprehension. Yomi pushed the glasses up her nose and saw what was growling at her.

------

"No, my body actually froze, it wasn't just fear," Tomo explained. Kagura didn't trust her.

"But you could move as soon as they left."

"I tried to move as it was w-was behind me."

"But the 'feet' behind you were just walking past."

"Two feets!"

"Stop freaking out everyone has two feet."

"Not that! Two sets of feet"

"Like some sort of team?" Kagura asked.

"No! Not like that, four feet walking together, like a dog, or, or maybe a H~H~HORSE!!" Tomo said in fear. "You know what its like to have some one behind you."

"Maybe because you're always jumping behind my back," said Kagura, who was actually starting to get suspicious that Tomo might not be lying. A scream issued from downstairs.

"But listen to that screaming, this isn't safe." Tomo-chan.

"That means…"

"It means something dangerous getting Chiyo's room, so we need to get out of here before it gets us."

"Idiot! Chiyo's in t-trouble and whose room she's in-"

"Its Sakaki's room, yeah, yeah b-but what about our lives?!" Tomo-chan curled up in the corner.

"We can't do this unless we- Chiyo!- It could be anything." The screaming. "D-don't we have problems than that." "Damn it doesn't everyone else's safety mean anything to you?!." "I-I was paralysed." Kagura punched her into the wall. "Shut up, will you! We need to rescue her"

-------

Yomi faced the standing, smilling, - _it's a shark_ , she realized, kneeling with a knee and a hand on the floor. She felt stunned beyond functioning. She slowly crawled back, making sure she kept out of reach of its particular claws. That is, approximately one and a half meters, enough to stay out of the sharks reach, if it could...

"No they'll freeze you!" A voice yelled at her from down the stairs

"They what?!" "They'll free-" Tomo-chan started to repeat.

Suddenly she realized what Tomo was talking about. Her whole body froze in place. Bared its sharp teeth at her and she was just a trap victim, a bug in a spider-web. She realized something. She could still move her right foot. Using her free leg, she pulled herself out of its paralyzing reach. "Yomi!"　Kagura screamed motioning for her to jump over the railing into her arms. Yomi could only get one knee over the bar. She felt its sharp claws grasp her shoulders. She tried to yell and keep climbing as fast as she could, which she quickly realized was not at all. Before it could pull her down very far, however, the beast seemed to slip on something. They fell backward, smashed onto the hard floor. Yomi broke free of its grasp and crashed into the wall on the monster's right. She popped up into a brace position and what she saw showed she had the greatest of luck. The shark had gotten its feet jammed under the railing, stuck there with her mangled glasses-case stuck its claws. It was better to stay where she was.

Tomo-chan and Kagura called out to her from below.

"I'm fine! Go help Chiyo!" Yomi yelled back.

フォームの終わり


	6. Chapter 6

A/N I just saw the movie "Paprika" and realized some direct similarities to my story. Please note that this is purely accidental.

-----------------------------

Chiyo-Chiyo-Chiyo-Chiyo- and Sakaki - Chiyo and Sakaki -Chiyo… they better be safe. Kagura hoped with all of her might. She ran as fast as she could while tip-toeing one step at a time and somehow stayed ahead of Tomo, who was jumping two steps at a time while swinging her head back and forth to look for danger. "Keep it down." Tomo, checking around once again, obliged quickly.

Kagura tried breathed . They need to stay alive. Nothing can harm them, not anything. Her hair blew back as the monster, a shark with legs, like the one that attacked Yomi, turned its head to the side, that its eyes might be able to see them.

"Stop!!" Kagura whispered through her teeth. "What?" Tomo-chan

Jumped on Tomo and smashed various parts of her body on the steps. They both ducked close onto the steps.

Nooooooo! Her slipper had fallen off and was tumbling toward the bottom of the stairs. How loud it really was she wouldn't know, it seemed to have the area of a rock concert. She only prayed that is wouldn't pass the sharks level of hearing. God, please bring logic back to us, please.

Logic, for better or for worse, seemed to play out. The shark stood at the slipper and then traced the end of its path. It soon proceeded into marching up to stairs. "I'll run!" Me too. Kagura got pushed over the railing by the advancing Tomo, she fell onto the ground and hit her forehead. Pain melted through her skull. "Sorry!" Tomo flew past the beast. "I've got this." _What are you.....?!_

Tomo Takino was feeling brave right now. Paralysis ability was one thing, as were claws. But she was in attack mode now, and saw the perfect weapon ahead of her.  
She yanked the coat rack off of its corner by the stairs, and screamed "AAARAAARAAGGHHHAAAAAAAAGH!!!" as she bashed the beast with the best, large, jumping swack she had.

She opened her eyes and faced the impossible, the ultimate, the worst possible happening to her. The shark had survived the hit unharmed. Tomo panickedly thrust and thrust the coat rack at it, but it only managed to snap the rack in half. Her mouth was stuck open to scream, yet she couldn't move, only could squat there with her tongue out. She only could stay and deal with the shark walking toward her legs.

This the best protection she had, she could sit with her tongue sticking out and the the broken top end of a coat rack, and it didn't even include the metal support that ran down the center of the rack. Maybe if Chiyo, maybe if I had -- maybe if Kagura hadn't -- where is Kagura...

This fear was also accompanied by pain as the shark started to crawl onto her knees and breathe on her tongue. "DIE!" The shark bent its body around and the sharp other end of the coatrack hit its right eye. Tomo fell forward to the floor as the shark vanished into smoke, sighing a simple "-elp".  
-----

Yomi ran as fast as she could up the stairs. To get to Kurosawa-sensei was her top priority. On top of that she needed to get away from her room before the shark-monster freed its foot from under the railing. In other words, pretty much everything pointed to the fact that she should get sensei. She felt the sweat lining her hairline as she leaned on the door jam. "Ku-" "What's going on down there?! Why are all of the lights on?!" Kurosawa-sensei quickly responded.

Geez, she had noticed fast. No one she knew had bothered to look outside and check all of the other lights, except Kurosawa-sensei. Yomi sided with Kurosawa-sensei. But she couldn't say she was OK until everyone else was.

-----

Chiyo, dreadingly awaiting Sakaki's signal, stood by the door with her hand on the knob. She could feel the shark smashing on the door, making it bump upwards every time. She held on, making sure the twisting movements her wrist made did not touch the handle; worried and feeling what could happen once she did turn that knob. Sakaki, holding the empty water-glass from the table next to the bed, was breathing just as deeply and was giving her a despairing, forced smile.

Chiyo blinked hard, and stayed in that blurry, smeared blue world of her shut eyes for as long as she could. When she looked up again Sakaki had drained all of the joy out of her face. She gave the signal. Chiyo-chan opened the door and flew, full-force, away from the shark face she expected to fly out. The shark face drove out, as she feared, and burying herself in the futons that had been pushed aside, she could see Sakaki throw the glass with all of her might at the shark's eyes. A wave flew in front of her eyes. Then the shark roared in pain as bluish-red blood gushed out of its eye.

It was quite a frightening sight. Then it disappeared in a puff of whitish smoke which soon faded. No trace of it at all was left, other than the uncharacteristically thin marks on the door.

Kurosawa-sensei didn't know what to think or where to go. Sharks with feet? The story made no sense. A dizzy blurry wave passed in front of her eyes. Seeming to share that sensation, Mizuhara-san grasped on to her shoulder "What was that?" "You saw…?" "Did you…?" She could feel all of the hairs on her arms and legs standing up feverishly. "A large wave just-" "J-just we need to keep ourselves safe here. Have you seen anything else weird?" "No.. listen, You have the highest room in the house. This could be base." Kurosawa-sensei moved more into the light, a pointless maneuver, because the whole room was lit about the same amount, but it did show her seriousness. "Listen, is Osaka-san, Kagura, Yukari" a slight pause "sensei alright?" "I only know what I saw, but we don't have to sit here and wonder about it!"

-------

"There's got to be a better way to do it this." Kagura hoped out loud as she nursed Tomo's wounds.

"Do what? Slash up our limbs."

"No, that's not it."

"What then, get eaten by demons? Hell, I'm not getting near one of those again."

"You know, a better way to fight off danger. You're not helping much."

"Hey, I can't run, ok?!" Tomo said.

"C'mon." Tomo just stared into the ceiling. "We can them get out of this "

"Maybe if we had the Rempika…" Tomo-chan mumbled. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?! Is that all you can think about?"

"What?! Can you think of something better?"

"We didn't have to get ourselves into this you know."

Kagura, still anxious about Chiyo, was starting to get annoyed at this new friend she was nursing. She obviously was trying to save her own skin.

"Well, it was your idea to join us at this summer house this year"

Tomo had a point.

"……"

_Yeah._

"……"

Tomo-chan had started to point behind her.

Kagura morbid hopes turned out to be an empty hallway. _Well, that is pleasantly surprising, _she thought.  
But there was also another shark monster on the other side...

She instinctively squeezed Tomo's legs causing her to jump up in pain, bleeding on the places between them. _Oh shit!_

_Now what do I do?_ Kagura tried the silly method of calling Tomo back with her hand while crawling on the blood spilled on the floor.

_Wait that's it!_

Kagura grabbed a handful of blood and threw it to the wall. The smell distracted the shark for a several seconds while Kagura dove and grabbed Tomo, then ran toward the staircase.

The shark started back up towards them. Kagura、 with some pity, reached into Tomo's wounds and grabbed another handful of blood to distract it again.

They came back to the stairs location of their last battle.

Then there came a hissing sound from above them; another shark had the started climbing down the stairs and smelled the blood. _Great, now we have to sharks toescape from._

While searching for a way out, she gave the objective of using the long end of the coatrack as a guard against the higher shark, to the screaming Tomo.

Kagura grabbed another fistful of Tomo's blood as Tomo in painfree panic tried to jam the coatrack on the roof of the sharks mouth.

The shark on their floor moved towards them. Kagura first thought of aiming the blood to the side, but then realized that would be useless at this point.

_Dang it, dang it._ The shark up the stairs was only going to gnaw intently on that wood intently while they stood there.

The shark on the stairs bit deep on the end of the coatrack. Tomo desperately tried to keep control of her end. The other shark was walking emotionlessly toward them.

Kagura flung some blood backwards over the level where the upper shark was and the ran with Tomo moaning in her arms.

Chasing the drops while grabbing the coatrack, the shark was pulled by the rack in its mouth getting stuck on the railing, then the shark flopped down the stairs. Kagura below the bottom of the staircase as the second shark ran after them but suddenly got intercepted by the tumbling, upper shark. It rolled over, getting its back clawed up until it was immobile. The second shark looked up at Kagura as she threw the sharp metal end of the coatrack at it and pierced its nose.

Both sharks, after suffering a bit, turned into white smoke.

After recovering, Tomo and Kagura stared into Sakaki's room; Kagura's head banged with frustration. The room was empty.


End file.
